www.WDIO.com

EPA Denies Extension for Enbridge Dredging Project in Mich.

Posted at: 12/02/2013 2:36 PM

COMSTOCK TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has denied Enbridge Inc.'s request for a 10-month extension of its deadline for dredging sections of the Kalamazoo River, polluted by an 800,000-gallon-plus oil pipeline leak in 2010.

The pipeline runs Sarnia, Ontario, to Griffith, Ind.

The EPA tells Enbridge in a letter that if Enbridge has acted earlier, "it would not require an extension now." The deadline to finish the work remains Dec. 31.

Enbridge has said that opposition from authorities in Kalamazoo County's Comstock Township to creating a dredge pad slowed the work. But the EPA says the Calgary, Alberta-based company should have had a backup plan.

The township is east of Kalamazoo.

Enbridge spokesman Jason Manshum tells MLive.com that the company did everything it could to expedite the cleanup.

(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)